Karen Buford

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Karen Buford attended Metropolitan State College of Denver obtaining a Bachelors of Art degree in 1986. During junior/senior years , she helped organize several art exhibits at the Auraria Higher Education Center. Karen organized conferences, programs and panel discussions relating to African/African American art, culture and activism and curated several exhibits of African/African-American art and artifacts from the Denver Black West Art Museum and The Denver Art Museum for the student population at the tri-educational facilities of Auraria Campus.

After graduation, Karen exhibited artwork at several alternative and cooperative art galleries in the Denver area. She worked as a volunteer and organizer for Denver Black Arts Festival Inc, 1987-1994 and was a Founding member and Vice-president of ULOZI Inc/ULOZI Art Center, an African American visual artist’s cooperative from 1990-1994. Karen worked with Denver Public Schools to provide visual art programs, presentations, classes and workshops promoting African/African American art, history, culture, and literature to K-12 students. She also worked with the Moyo Nguvu cultural Arts Center teaching African/African American art, history and literature for Children’s Rites Of Passage program with K-12 students.

Karen collaborated with arts/community organizations to write grants for visual arts programs, public art and community arts initiatives and served on public art selection communities to provide high quality art from qualified visual artists. She also successfully initiated a project which provided minority visual art for the Denver International Airport which represented the influence and contributions of minorities to the growth and development of the city of Denver and the state of Colorado.

Karen relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1994 where she worked with Black Artist Network for Development (BAND) 1994-1996, helping to organize and exhibit artwork at community centers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro Area. She exhibited work at Hamline University in conjunction with the 8th Annual Juneteenth Celebration 1998. She accepted a position as Fine Arts Coordinator and Visual art teacher for South High School 1999-2000 and worked to help facilitate school related art programs and community involvement through several arts programs. Karen worked with numerous arts/community organizations through the Minnesota Arts & Education Partnership (MA&EP), Arts for Academic Achievement (AAA), Partners, Arts, Students and Schools (PASS), Annenberg Arts Challenge to enhance and improve student’s academic achievement through involvement with the arts.

Karen relocated to the Atlanta area in 2003 and Worked with Art NOW to become an Art Leader in the school and an art resource to help integrate art across the curriculum for elementary school students. She exhibited artwork at the National Black Arts Festival Venders Market at the Atlanta Underground 2003 and as a member of the Atlanta Artist’s Center and African Americans for the Arts throughout the Atlanta Metro Area.

Karen relocated to Las Vegas in 2007 and began working with the Clark County School District teaching art to elementary school children. She has participated in the Summerlin chalk art festival for the past two years as a sidewalk chalk artist and is currently exhibiting artwork every First Friday in the Las Vegas Arts District at The City of the World Art Gallery.